On vacay!
We’ll resume our delish garden reporting June 30.
In the meantime, leaving you with another way to roll with tillandsias - “plant” them on a shelf - inspired by Crimson Hort.
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Nature.com—Perhaps the first step towards GMO - tomato genome sequence identified
Free Hose Clothes Friday!
And then there are Hose Clothes .... the sassy slipcover for your garden hose made exclusively by Dirt Couture. And what landscape doesn’t look fabulous in animal prints? Use it poolside, on the patio, in steamy tropical landscapes or urban spaces. Gift it to garden friends.
To win one….leave us note about your latest snake experience. Not that Hose Clothes look like snakes, but sort of. We’ll pick a winner at random, eyes closed pinkie promise.
Catalog gardening
Checking in with Beatrix and Bob, the happy couple who live inside your garden catalogs….
Beatrix didn’t notice that her hanging plants were multiplying and then it was too late. Photo: West Elm
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Billboard—Ringo Starr is turning the song “Octopus Garden” into an illustrated children’s book.
Make your own party path lights
Broomstick - check. Tuna can - check. Thrift store vase - check. Votive - got one. Total cost to the blogger at Inmyownstyle.com for this candle torch: $2.97. Click for instructions.
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The Meadville Tribune—La, la, la, la, la….just planting hostas on a lovely Saturday…uh oh!
DIY fire bowl
It turns out fire bowls are fairly easy to make. You need a concrete bowl, river rocks and a Sterno chafing disk. Seriously. That’s it.
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Herald News—Bringing bees back from the brink with buckwheat
Note to self:
Father’s Day bouquet: 4 pack of Dad’s root beer, cut flowers (grown locally of course). Inspired by Make Life Lovely.
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USA Today —Grass painting catches on as drought continues in some regions
Taa-dah! The “Potted” contest
And then you finally admit one day that in the friendly, collaborative world of gardening, you still can still let your competitiveness get the best of you on days. You know you can plant the pots off of anyone in your garden club.
Don’t be shy about it - share your potted arrangements in Potted’s annual “That’s so Potted” contest. Compete to win a $500 shopping spree at the Potted store either online or in store.
Last week’s winner of “Succulents Simplified” by Debra Lee Baldwin…..Cindy Whitley!
Prime numbers in the garden
The word on the lips of all East Coast gardeners right now is cicada.
What a novelty! Instead of the slow turn of the four seasons we have a genuinely unusual insect appearance. Why would the cicadas choose the number 17 as their life span? Here’s one theory.
Another garden novelty is the flowering of a rarely blooming plant. Could you ID a bamboo blossom at 10 paces? I couldn’t.
But Sean of Mad Man Bamboo Nursery is a real bamburosa and he whipped out his camera to record the floral action over at his Himalayacalamus hookerianus (say that three times, fast) when it surprised him last week.
Prime time, anyway.
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Washington Post—-A cicada video for those of us on the Best Coast who are missing the action.
Charlotte
Bathing on the balcony
The New York Times shares this garden home in the sky and we’re loving the way the homowners expanded their living space - putting a bathtub on the balcony.
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WTOP—The other “lime” disease to watch out for…lime induced margarita dermatitus
Astonish your gardening friends
All those plants with the botanical Latin name of Something-or-other officinalis?
I always thought that meant “official”, perhaps as one of the first varieties identified.
Turns out officinalis means the plant was in a medieval monastery’s medicinal collection (think Brother Cadfael pottering around in the garden, with a bee skep or two nearby). The storeroom was known as an officina—hence, officinalis.
I don’t think you can win any bets in bars with this tidbit, but I do bet your gardener friends will be intrigued.
Photo of Shrewsbury Abbey is courtesy of Cranberry Morning blog
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WUNC—Pungent herbs could disinfect fruit going to market.
Charlotte
